BROWNSVILLE, Texas – When asked what the reaction is to Lit Fiber bringing blazing fast broadband to the people of Brownsville, Rene Gonzalez, the company’s senior vice president, said, they want it tomorrow.

The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service secured an exclusive video interview with Gonzalez at the official opening of Lit Fiber’s new Demo Center in downtown Brownsville. The address is: 744 E. Levee Street, Brownsville.

“They want it tomorrow. I mean, the folks on our website, being able to take surveys and expressing demand. We’ve reached out to folks over the years, from the study phase all the way through to being able to get service here sometime in the summer. So, absolutely, the excitement is there. We know that people are ready for it and we’re ready to get to them,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez: We’re just very thankful for the opportunity to be here

Lit Communities, the parent company of Lit Fiber, was founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 2019. It leverages public-private partnerships with local governments and municipalities to build and operate last-mile fiber networks. The company now has networks in place, under construction or in planning in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

According to its website, Lit Communities provides a full, turnkey solution for building broadband infrastructure in communities of all sizes, enabling them to create digital equity for their residents, businesses, and municipalities.

“We partner with real estate developers, municipal, county, and other governmental entities, as well as a variety of private partners to deploy last-mile fiber optic network infrastructure. Our networks also support a wide variety of other services in addition to internet, including but not limited to voice, tele-health, home security, home automation, small cell, DAS, and wireless backhaul, and public safety applications.”

In his exclusive interview with the Guardian, Gonzalez said he was proud of the turnout for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He described it as huge.

“Today is a landmark day for this city and for our company. It’s the result of a lot of hard work, many, many years of many partners… thousands of steps that it took to get to this point where we’re able to be in a building, celebrating the beginning of this facility, and really what this symbolizes for our community, the technology, being accessible to people that haven’t had the chance to experience what this connectivity will bring, how it will change their lives,” Gonzalez said.

“We’re really proud of the community. All the leaders that are showing up today. I mean, the support is huge. So it feels incredible to feel that level of support from the community.”

Gonzalez said the project started following initial discussions with Brownsville City Commission in 2019. Data from American Community Survey showed Brownsville being one of least wired cities in the nation. Gonzalez said the Covid pandemic just exacerbated that.

“Having the vision of the leadership and the city commission and the different folks that are no longer in the city commission… former Mayor Trey Mendez, folks like Ramiro Gonzalez who was working at the city at the time. Those folks really were instrumental in planting the seeds and keeping the beat going and beating those drums because vision is important to establish before you take action,” Gonzalez said.

“And I feel like the survey and the studies that we did in 2020 with the city demonstrated that need. It demonstrated the demand that was there and it gave us all the confidence to proceed forward, not only as separate entities but as a partnership down the road.”

Gonzalez said the project would not have happened without key partnerships. He cited all the entities that came together: Texas Southmost College, UT-Rio Grande Valley, Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, the City of Brownsville, the Port of Brownsville, and Brownsville Public Utilities.

“This doesn’t happen overnight. These things they take a lot of effort. They take a lot of sacrifice to do. That we’re here today is because we were able to bring those entities together,” Gonzalez said.

“There’s a reason why this project has moved forward with such speed and frictionless and it’s because of the fact that we have those partnerships. And that’s unique, I think. Not every ISP (internet service provider) can say that they have a partnership this deeply ingrained within a community. And I think that’s going to set us up for success not only for the city, but to bring this connectivity to the far reaches of the whole county.”

The Guardian has interviewed Gonzalez before about the funding Lit Fiber was able to secure for the project. However, we asked him to repeat it.

“We’re backed by private equity and our partners Oak Hill Capital Partners have been wonderful. They’ve come down to Brownsville and they’ve seen the beauty of this city and they’ve seen the momentum that it (the project) was having.  When we were approached them about this community and about the need to get capital for it… let’s just say that they felt confident enough to make that financial backing.

“And with that backing, we’ve created this entity, Lit Fiber to invest these dollars in the community and start building this network, getting people connected.”

Gonzalez added: “When you show folks the opportunity and you show them that demand is there and you show them that the support is going to be universal in an area like Brownsville, I think it’s an easy decision for these investors. And, it doesn’t hurt when you have all this development happening, in the Port of Brownsville and development happening with SpaceX. These are other catalysts that happen and they all kind of lift us up all together. So I feel that we came in at a very unique time, and we’re just very thankful for the opportunity. I mean, this is something that we don’t take for granted.”

‍